Last updated 12/31/24
When the obstacle in your way seems to have stopped you in your tracks,
it’s not a failure.
It’s part of what’s calling forth the necessary change
so you can move through, around, over, or under whatever is on your path to success.— Christian Sørensen
This quote applies to my relationship to public domain books,
Although I started narrating audiobooks in 2002, it wasn’t until ACX launched in 2011 that I really got a foothold in the industry. Prior to that point, the market didn’t exist for a narrator who lived in Atlanta. You either had to be in New York or LA; otherwise, producers didn’t want to talk to you. With ACX, all of the rest of us could have a voice in audiobooks, too.
I soon burned out doing ACX projects since most of them were royalty share books where the rights holder was not promoting the audiobook. (Shameless plug: If you’re interested, I explain how to pick good ACX titles in my webinar Put Yourself in the ACX Drivers Seat, available on my Shop page.)
At the same time, I wasn’t getting traction with publishers. I decided to start recording more public domain books.
Public domain (PD) books are those where the copyright has expired. They belong to all of us, and anybody can do anything they want to with a book that’s in the public domain.
Over time, I’ve kind of become what I think of as the Public Domain Whisperer™️. I regularly search HathiTrust.org for interesting PD books. HathiTrust is a consortium of academic and research libraries with over 17 million digitized items, I often find a book that I think would be a good one for another narrator to do, so I send the link and the suggestion to them.
I’ve been gratified by the enthusiastic and excited responses to my finds. One experienced and award-winning narrator told me I had set them on a new path, and they’ve won a number of awards for their PD productions!
This article will be my Public Domain Narration Headquarters. I’ll start with ten reasons why I love, love, LOVE recording and publishing public domain books. Plus, check out the resources list below as well as the comments, where I answer your questions!
10. You’ll find an abundance of books that are ready for you to do.
Every year, new books come into the public domain!
On 1 January 2025, everything published in the United States in 1929 became public domain because the copyrights expired. What does that include? This page will give you a few ideas. Every book published in the US before 1929 is also in the public domain.
Books published in the US from 1930 to 1963 inclusive could be in the public domain, and the majority of them are. The copyrights had to be renewed during those years, and most people didn’t renew them. You must research a book’s copyright status to determine if the copyright was renewed. You’ll find info about research in the Resources section below.
If a book was published in 1930, you can start recording it today and be ready to publish it on New Year’s Day next year. You may find the early bird gets the worm!
9. You have complete creative control and freedom.
You can change words, including the way I did in a memoir. You can add or remove words. You can combine texts. In short, you can do anything you want to with a public domain book and are only limited by your creativity and imagination. I know people who have combined fairy tales or short stories (by theme or author) together to create a new compilation.
In a similar vein, one of my favorite projects of all time was one where I actually mashed up two public domain texts. Let me tell you the story to give you an idea of something you can do.
In 1889, Elizabeth Cochrane was a journalist for the NY World paper owned by Joseph Pulitzer. Her byline was Nellie Bly. As a publicity stunt for the paper, Nellie Bly challenged the feat set by fictional character Phileas Fogg to go around the world in 80 days. She was in New York and traveled east to London. She boarded a ship in mid-November, when the northern hemisphere was growing colder and losing daylight each day.
Meanwhile, Cosmopolitan, a rival magazine, didn’t want Nellie to get all the attention. So Cosmopolitan sent their reporter Elizabeth Bisland on a train that same day going west to San Francisco.
Nellie was trying to beat Phileas Fogg’s time, and Elizabeth wanted to beat Nellie! Nellie didn’t even know about Elizabeth’s trip.
They each wrote stories for their publication during their trips and later compiled their adventures in a book. Nellie’s book was published in 1890, and Elizabeth’s book appeared in 1891.
I mashed up their texts and put both women on the same timeline, which was so thrilling and exciting that I could barely stop to eat or sleep! I hired Melissa Reizian Frank to do a dual narration with me. In 2015, I published Bly vs Bisland: Beating Phileas Fogg in a Race Around the World in conjunction with the 125th anniversary of the end of the race. I love that whole project and still get chills thinking about it!
8. Public domain books don’t have any kind of external production deadlines.
If an idea sparks for you but you can’t work on it now, it will still be available when you have time for it. Be aware, though, why ideas love speed. Also, as another side note to that article, the Bly vs Bisland mash-up was an idea that woke me up!
Last year, another mash-up idea came to me. I’m slowly developing it in between narrating for publishers and continuing my self-publishing with ready-made PD books, as well as my continuous work on NarratorsRoadmap.com. A good PD book perfectly fills holes in my schedule!
7. Public domain books are usually extremely well edited, and they have very few typos.
I particularly appreciated this aspect after narrating some contemporary manuscripts that weren’t quite up to that standard.
6. With PD books, I can record in genres that I love or in those where I’d like to work, all in a low-pressure setting.
Nobody’s waiting on this recording or looking to see what I’m doing. I can try something new, which in turn gives me something else to share with people on social media and in my marketing.
I devour biographies for pleasure reading, so you can imagine my excitement to find Diane Disney Miller’s The Story of Walt Disney from 1957. The copyright was not renewed, and she later said she didn’t really write it. It’s Walt’s story as written by Pete Martin. It’s as close to Walt’s memoir as there ever was. I recorded it and was thrilled to publish it on the 110th anniversary of Walt Disney’s birthday.
5. When I’m self publishing, I’m always working and improving my narration skills.
Language styles change over time. I seem to pick PD books with very complex sentence structures. With every book I do, I look for ways to present the material naturally in a way that aids listener understanding.
As part of APAC this year, I was able to have a short meeting with a producer. Their first question was, “Tell me what you’ve been doing lately.” I replied that I had recently completed a true crime book and a couple of biographies. I didn’t distinguish that the true crime book was for a publisher and the 2 biographies were self-published public domain books. It all counts!
4. You can still record a PD book even if there are other audio editions of the book available.
The beauty of public domain texts is that they belong to all of us! If it’s a popular book like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, you may discover other audio editions available, sometimes MANY other productions. Nothing can stop you from recording another one! Your interpretation is going to be different than anyone else, and you’re making art that you’re proud of.
Current events can generate interest in an audiobook, for instance the news story behind this vague tweet where I went looking for a PD book. In 1915, explorer Ernest Shackleton sailed his ship Endurance to Antarctica. It got stuck in the ice and sunk. Over a century later, the ship was discovered. The History Channel showed a fascinating documentary about it in March.
My search for related books revealed Shackleton wrote about it in South. Several audio versions of it had been done, but I would happily record that book if I were a British man. He wrote another book about a different exploration that’s not on Audible. I also found a fabulous biography about him that’s not in audio.
An upcoming movie tie-in could be a great reason to publish a new edition of a book! The movie company’s marketing machine could put the wind in your sails and help your audiobook gain visibility.
3. I can submit my work for review.
AudioFile Magazine reviewed one of my public domain books and has reviewed many from other narrators.
2. I can submit my work for awards.
I entered So Big by Edna Ferber in the Independent Audiobook Awards and was thrilled when it became a finalist in the Classics category.
1. I keep all of the royalties.
I have to tell you, asynchronous (passive) income from public domain audiobooks every month is the gift that keeps on giving!
Like a royalty share book, you’re not guaranteed a book will sell, much less be a hit. It may take a while for it to earn out. It may never earn out. It’s always a risk.
But one PD book that does really well can make up for all the ones that aren’t selling as well! The more public domain books I record and publish, the more I want to do, and the more excited I am about my work.
Other resources on this topic:
As I continue to create content related to public domain books, I’ll update the list below.
Starting Point
- I include the most detail about public domain books in my Create Your Own Path video course and my webinar Public Domain Audiobooks and Self-Publishing, which are available to all paid members of NarratorsRoadmap.com.
- In addition to talking about finding sources of books or even inspiration for your search, I also:
- discuss how to research copyrights to determine whether the book is in the public domain
- detail how and why I edit and update a public domain text
- explain publishing considerations and distributor options
- demonstrate the rights holder process of claiming a book on ACX
- include 2 long lists of relevant resources not found here. Beyond linking to other sites with PD books, I’ve hand-curated and shared collections of books on HathiTrust.org that narrators might choose to perform in the categories of:
- Years:
- 1925 publications
- 1926 publications
- 1927 publications
- 1928 publications
- Subjects:
- Baseball
- Biographies/memoirs
- Children’s Books
- Diaries and letters
- Fiction
- History and crime
- Pirates
- Plays
- Authors:
- Anatole France
- J. M. Barrie
- James Branch Cabell
- Wilkie Collins
- Will Rogers
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Booth Tarkington
- Albert Terhune
- H. G. Wells
- P. G. Wodehouse
- Years:
- Members also can access my Audiobook Distributors Comparison Chart. I compare 6 distributors across 22 points so you can decide the best distributor(s) for your audiobook.
- Note that if you already have a narrator account on a marketplace site like ACX, you’ll need to create a rights holder account using a different email address. Both your narrator and rights holder accounts can share the same tax ID.
- As a special enticement to join, you’ll find a discount on my Shop page in the “Rent My Brain” section.
- In addition to talking about finding sources of books or even inspiration for your search, I also:
- I participated in this June 2022 Clubhouse chat about PD books.
- I’ve long advocated creating your own work. In addition to my 10 points above in this article, you might read my articles Reasons to Create Your Own Stuff part 1 and part 2. The profound Eckhart Tolle quote that I highlighted in part 2 has proven true for me.
- Since public domain books have much in common with royalty share books, the 5 reasons I listed in this article to do royalty share books apply to public domain books. When I wrote I’d do a royalty share over a public domain title, I wasn’t commercially publishing PD books. Now, I’d publish a PD book before I’d narrate and produce an RS book!
- I wrote this article to help narrators understand some copyright basics.
- These 2 articles are overflowing with links you’ll use to research rights holders and copyright status:
Amazon Edition
- If you distribute your audiobook through ACX or Findaway, which uses ACX to distribute to Audible, you must start the production process with an Amazon edition. Keep in mind that ACX is owned by Audible, which is owned by Amazon; as a result, everything in ACX is part of the Amazon ecosystem. This requirement for an Amazon edition is ONLY true of ACX and Findaway. Other distributors do not have this stipulation. My Audiobook Distributors Comparison Chart for members of NarratorsRoadmap.com has much more info about distributors’ requirements and offerings.
- This article describes what I did to publish a Kindle edition. Be sure to read all of the extensive comments to get the workaround and more tips!
Cover Art, Supplemental PDF of Images, and More
- I detailed my experiences in finding and selecting art for the Kindle version of Fanny Herself: A Passionate Instinct in this article. At the time, I had change the title to differentiate it per Kindle Publishing rules. If I were publishing it today, I’d leave the original title as is so that it would get displayed with the other editions on Amazon.
- This article examines whether you can legally re-use the images in a public domain book for your cover art or supplemental PDF.
- When using art depicting a real person, you not only have to research the copyright for the image but also whether you would violate their Right of Publicity as detailed in this article.
- You can use public domain art for your cover. My article Tour of Sites with Public Domain Art links to a bunch of repositories with comments about the images available in each.
- This site shows the most popular font by year. I love using a font that is authentic to the period of the book!
- I share a few ideas to help you promote your public domain audiobooks with interesting pull quotes from critics’ reviews, publisher marketing text in your descriptive blurbs, and authentic cover art in this article.
Promo Videos
- You might find inspiring ideas in my articles Creating promo videos with public domain components part 1 and part 2.
Marketing
- Since you’d be publishing your audiobook, you’d also be in charge of marketing and promoting it. You’ll find an abundance of ideas and tactics on my Audiobook Marketing Cheat Sheet.
- You might be interested to read this article to see how I promoted a public domain book based on something in it.
The comments section is my Q&A about PD books. Got a question? Leave me a comment!
Reposting and paraphrasing a question I received in email —
I love a certain author’s work. From what I can tell, their work is in the public domain. I found a collection of their short stories on Kindle. It says “annotated” and that it was republished. Does that mean it’s no longer in the Public Domain?
As of today, anything published in the US before 1927 is PD.
The annotations in the Kindle collection of that author’s stories are copyrighted, but the underlying PD stories are not.
Some of those stories published from 1927 forward could still be under copyright. You’d have to research the publication dates for the story to know.
I’d suggest that you curate your own collection(s) of the author’s stories, perhaps around a theme.
Reposting and paraphrasing a question I received in email —
I’m a union actor. Do you have info about producing a PD project under a SAG/AFTRA contract?
Assuming you’re planning to be the solo narrator, you would upload the completed PD book as a DIY project on the distributor(s) of your choice and receive all the royalties from it.
I’m non-union and therefore haven’t posted any info about SAG/AFTRA rules.
I do know that both ACX and Findaway can only report a project to the union if it has some PFH component, either royalty share plus PFH (ACX only) or straight PFH (both):
ACX SAG/AFTRA eligibility rules
Findaway Voices SAG/AFTRA eligibility rules Union talent are excluded from the Voices Share deals per this page.
It’s my understanding you could do as many non-union (usually royalty share, but PD books would also fall here) audiobooks that you want. Non-union audiobooks wouldn’t count toward your health and pension plans but also wouldn’t get you in hot water with the union.
Definitely ask your reps how to proceed!
I’d really appreciate it if you would let me know what they say so I can learn, too. 🙂
Reposting and paraphrasing a question I received in email —
I’ve done some research on this book, and I think what I’ve learned is that some versions are in the public domain and others are not.
One text has copyright dates of 1904 and 1916.
The Stanford Renewal Database shows one published in 1961 and renewed in 1989. It includes this line:
“Limitation of Claim; New Matter: NM: cover & artwork throughout.”
However, a different entry in the Stanford Renewal Database was published in 1957 and renewed in 1985. It includes the line:
“Limitation of Claim; New Matter: NM: ill.”
Project Gutenberg has a copy, and the book has been recorded on Librivox.
Can you explain the difference in these books? Which one(s) could I record?
The book was first published in 1904, so the basic book is in the PD. Any edition published in 1926 or earlier is also PD, so the edition published in 1916 is also PD.
Publishers of editions from 1927 forward can only copyright new matter(NM) , which could be an intro, bibliography, etc., and/or artwork. However, that copyright does NOT extend to the underlying work of the original book.
For instance, the one that was published in 1961 has this line in the renewal:
Limitation of Claim; New Matter: NM: cover & artwork throughout
The original story is still copyright-free. The publisher could copyright their edition, but their copyright only applies to the cover and interior artwork that they created. Since they timely renewed their copyright before the end of the 28th year, they still hold the copyright for their material.
The same is true for the edition published in 1957 and renewed in 1985. The original story is still public domain, and that publisher still holds copyright on their art.
If I planned to record this book, I would read from an edition published before 1927. That way, you can feel assured that you are reading the original text.
Reposting and paraphrasing a question I received in email —
Should a newcomer do a public domain book as their first book?
Narrating a public domain book is not the best choice as a first book. In fact, assuming you want to commercially publish the PD audiobook you’d create, I suggest that you save PD work until you’re at an intermediate level of narration. That means you’re comfortable with your DAW and the entire recording process, and you understand how to get your recordings edited, ideally through outsourcing that task.
Public domain books are much more complicated than completing an RS project on ACX. As the publisher, you must first research and verify the copyright status, and then you have to determine which distributor(s) will publish your audiobook. You’re also responsible for creating the cover art and doing all marketing and promotion of the title.
Instead, I recommend all newcomers gain experience by volunteering to read for the blind with their state reading service and/or Learning Ally. State reading services can be found at this link.
I no longer advise people to volunteer on LibriVox because someone else may decide to sell your recordings. Since all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain, you would have no say or recourse about your work being sold.
Reposting and paraphrasing a question I received in email —
I don’t want to become a professional narrator. I just want to make some extra money from my narrations of public domain books. Is that possible?
It’s certainly possible to make extra income from PD audiobooks. It’s definitely not an enterprise where you could expect to get rich quick. If I wanted to make some extra money, I would do the exercise described in this article.
Audiobook listeners demand a high quality of both performance and production in return for their money. If the audiobook doesn’t sound good for any reason, the customer is likely to return it. Once that happens, the distributor claws back the royalties paid out.
Even if you don’t want to be a pro narrator, you’ll still be competing with them and therefore need some experience before diving in. Refer to the comment above about getting experience by recording for the blind. I’d also suggest that you follow the “First Steps” listed in the Connections area on the NarratorsRoadmap.com home page.
Once you publish your audiobook, you would be responsible for marketing it. Without visibility, you can’t expect much in the way of sales. If you’re doing a public domain book where audio copies already exist, how will you distinguish and promote your version? You’ll find some great ideas and tactics in my Audiobook Marketing Cheat Sheet.
Finally, be aware that some distributors pay monthly, while others pay quarterly. Some won’t pay until a threshold is reached. If money is needed immediately, with all respect I would advise you to look for a service-industry job.
Hi Karen. I’ve contacted you before, but I have abandoned ACX and am doing PD exclusively until I’m “discovered” by publishers. ha ha. Anyway, my rom-com is coming out via Spoken Realms at the end of this month, and I’m working on an English mystery to improve my accents. So, the point of this message is that I noted you like Hathi Trust. I went there, and I think it’s pretty tough to filter out the articles, and other scholastic work to just find novels. Any suggestions? So far, I’ve been exploring using Gutenberg. Also, you didn’t say anything about Spoken Realms.
Hi, Jim! Thanks for the note, and congrats on the PD books you’ve already done!
I’ll answer your questions in reverse order.
I didn’t mention Spoken Realms because I didn’t want to write about the pros and cons of different distributors. I limited my discussion of distributors in this article to ACX’s requirement of a Kindle edition because I linked to previous articles I’ve written about creating one.
Also, I’m developing a comparison chart of audiobook distributors that I will provide to members of NarratorsRoadmap.com. I’ll update the info in this article’s Resources when it’s ready.
As for searching HathiTrust.org, I definitely can appreciate your comments about the plethora of outdated governmental and academic documents in their archive!
You can click the link for Advanced Catalog Search and then filter the fields for author, title, etc. I also change the Publication Date to “before 1964” or “between 1927 and 1964”.
If you check the box for “Full view only”, you’ll see those publications that HathiTrust believes are in the PD. You can choose the language and an Original Format of “book” to narrow the results.
Your search results probably will still include numerous documents that are useless for our publishing empires, but at least you’ll see less of it! 🙂
I hope this info helps. Best wishes for your success!
Karen
I should mention that you need an account from one of HathiTrust’s institutional partners in order to download many of the books from this incredible digital repository.
Check to see if your college is on the list of members at HathiTrust.org. If you are no longer a college student, contact your alumni association to learn if it offers a login to your school.
Once you have login credentials from a member university, you can sign on to HathiTrust.org with full privileges including downloads of entire texts.
the UNION rules for AudioBook Narrating is vague and almost non-existent. Most Narrators, like myself, pay through a Paymaster service into our Sag-Aftra H & P. If I earned $1000 on Royalty Share Plus then I run it through the paymaster and I get less money myself, but I am paying into my system and that is what I need to do. there are several paymaster companies.
Hi, Stephen. Thanks for the note.
I’m non-union, so I don’t have much info or offer advice about union projects. However, I do know many union narrators who have produced their own projects from public domain books. I’m sure the union reps would be happy to give you guidance.
Karen
Reposting and paraphrasing a question I received in email —
If song lyrics are included in a public domain book, does that mean the song is also in the public domain? I’d love to sing the song in my recording.
You can’t assume that the song is public domain. You’d have to look up the song publication date. If it was before 1927, then it’s in the public domain.
If it looks like it’s still copyrighted, you could put it through the Fair Use test and decide if you want to sing it on that basis. This handy checklist goes through that test.
I sang some PD songs in JAILED FOR FREEDOM and found it fun (though I’m not the best singer!). Doing so brought me closer to the brave suffragettes.
In that same book, I used part of a copyrighted recording in my credits.
You’ve heard the saying, “Integrity is what you do when no one is watching.” I always try to find the rights holder and attempt to license my usage. However, even copious research may yield no results. Some works seem to be orphaned, while ownership of others have been swallowed in a labyrinth of corporate mergers.
My copyrighted recording from 1951 fell into the second category. I requested usage from Universal Music Group but received no response.
I felt my usage could pass the Fair Use test **IF I were ever questioned**.
As a non-attorney, I’d say the whole usage question is one of risk assessment. What is the chance the RH:
A) will KNOW you used their copyrighted material
B) will CARE you used their copyrighted material
C) would be willing to go after you for using their copyrighted material
If all those things are true, the RH’s first step would be to send a “Cease and Desist” letter. If I received one, I’d reply with my Fair Use analysis.
If that didn’t resolve the dispute, I would attempt to negotiate a license for my usage.
In my worst case scenario of a potential lawsuit, it would be easy enough to remove the copyrighted material and upload an updated file for an audiobook already on sale.
Posting a question I received in email —
I saw your course about doing public domain books and found one I want to do. If I want to pair my audiobook with an existing Amazon edition, how do I find contact info for the RH of the Amazon book?
In module 3 of the Create Your Own Path course on NarratorsRoadmap.com, I talk about distributors. At 5:34, I show where the publisher’s name is listed on the Amazon page. The call-out bubble on the screen notes that you may find their contact info with the Amazon Look Inside feature.
If it’s not printed in the book sample, you’ll have to Google them.
You may also need to check Amazon for other listings of the same book as all the editions may not appear together on the same page.
You may spend some time Googling different publisher names to come up with the contact info for one.
If you still can’t find contact info, or if no one responds to your message, you can always distribute your audiobook through another provider that doesn’t go through ACX to publish to Audible. Look at my Audiobook Distributor Comparison Chart for details.
Hello gorgeous. Sent a client your way just now. I love that when I Google a question about this brilliance YOU are at the top of the list. That’s alignment, baby! XO and thank you for sharing your toys.
Hi, Bonnie! Your just made my day, and not just because you referred someone to me (thank you!)! Public domain audiobooks are a passion of mine, so your comment about alignment is incredibly gratifying.
I’ve been doing more writing on Wednesdays and am starting a Clubhouse show on alternate Wednesdays in January. I’m looking forward to applying more things I’ve learned from you in 2023.
Thanks again!
Karen
HI Karen, I found a PD book I am considering narrating. There is a kindle edition on Amazon that says: “This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.” (The book downloads for free.) Currently there appears to be no audio of the book available at all. So if I move forward with producing, will I be able to just pair my finished audio book to that edition then?
Hi, Vanessa! I’m excited that you found an interesting PD book and happy that you asked this great question!
The short answer to your question is No.
Whoever published that Kindle book — or any Amazon edition — may plan to create their own audiobook.
When we “claim” an edition on Amazon in ACX, we are indicating that we control the audio rights to that edition. We can either create our own Amazon edition, in which case we own the audio rights, or obtain permission from an existing print rights holder to utilize the audio rights associated with their edition, whether Kindle, paperback, or hardback.
I write to Kindle owners and ask them if they plan to create an audiobook from their book. In the same message, I ask if I have permission to pair my audiobook with their Amazon edition if they aren’t making an audiobook. I don’t mention audio rights to them, but keep in mind that “pairing” equals “controls audio rights”. NarratorsRoadmap.com members have access to my template email in the Publishing resources of the Create Your Own Path video course.
I can claim an existing Kindle book on ACX ONLY AFTER I RECEIVE PERMISSION FROM THE KINDLE OWNER. In addition, ACX may need to unlock a PD book for you to claim it and/or may request proof that you have the audio rights to an Amazon book, especially when your name isn’t associated with it.
As reminder, only ACX and Findaway require you to claim an Amazon edition to publish your audiobook. Other distributors don’t have this requirement. I compare 6 distributors across 22 attributes in my Audiobook Distributors Comparison Chart available exclusively to NarratorsRoadmap.com members.
I hope this explanation helps. Let me know when you publish your PD audiobook so I can cheer you on!
Karen
Reposting and paraphrasing a question I received in email —
A Kindle publisher gave me permission to connect my audiobook with their edition. However, their edition includes a study guide, which I think is still copyrighted. Could I just narrate the public domain portion in the audiobook?
You are correct in thinking that only the original text would be the part that is public domain. Someone could add a study guide to meet the Kindle rules of distinguishing the edition from the public domain work. In that case, the study guide would remain copyrighted even though the original text has fallen into the PD.
When searching the records at Copyright.gov, you’ll often see that a copyright exists for “new matter (NM)”, such as an intro, postscript, or even a study guide.
You should only narrate the public domain portion. You have to match 97% of the text in the Kindle edition, which is more latitude than you might think. In a 100,000-word text, you could leave out 3000 words and still match.
I hope this info helps. Let me know when you publish so I can cheer you on!
Reposting and paraphrasing a question I received in email —
Thank you for creating and sharing your collections of HathiTrust books! I found many books that I want to record, and I’m so excited!
However, I can’t download more than a page at a time since I’m not a member. I read that individuals can’t become members.
How do you download the books? Do you download a page at a time, or read off the screen, or do something else?
I log in using a college alumni account, which gives me the ability to download the full PDFs. First, check whether your current or former college or that of a family member is a member institution. If so, see if that school offers alumni logins.
You’ve probably discovered that you can log in to HathiTrust as a guest using your Google, LinkedIn, or Microsoft login. However, the guest login still only lets you download a page at a time from books that Google digitized, which seem to be all the books that I want to record. 🙂 A guest login does let you create your own collections, which is useful for saving books you want to record.
In the meantime, I’d be glad to download the PDF for NarratorsRoadmap.com members if you’ll send me an email (NOT Facebook Messenger) with the link to the book.
Reposting and paraphrasing a question I received in email —
ACX is withholding payment for my PD audiobooks. Do I need to copyright my audio files through the US Copyright Office? I want to be ready if ACX requests copyright proof.
If ACX is withholding your payment, it’s probably not due to the copyright of the audio edition. The problem likely stems from the copyright and audio rights of the Amazon TEXT edition that you claimed to start the audiobook process on ACX.
While the underlying PD work is free for anyone to use, someone who creates a new edition (Kindle, hardback, paperback) can copyright their edition.
Before you can upload any book on ACX, you first MUST be able to claim an Amazon edition. For PD books, this means we either 1) create one or 2) gain permission from a rights-holder of an existing edition to use their edition.
To publish an edition of a PD text on Amazon, you must distinguish it from other editions of the same book by translating, annotating, or illustrating it (see this article for details.)
Anyone who creates an Amazon edition controls the audio rights associated with it.
When I have partnered with an existing RH, I had to notify ACX about their permission in order to claim the book. This step gives ACX my “proof of copyright”.
Claiming an Amazon edition outside of the 2 circumstances above violates ACX’s policy because you don’t control the audio rights associated with the text.
The other possibility could be that someone has claimed copyright to your audio files. You’d need to ask ACX exactly why they’ve stopped payment and the steps they recommend to solve the problem.
Copyrighting your audio files is a different question. Copyright is in effect once the work is in a tangible form. Your audiobook recordings are copyrighted.
However, in order to successfully win a claim of copyright infringement, the work would need to be registered with the US Copyright Office before the claim occurs. Refer to Copyright Circular 1, p4-5 about protecting your work and the benefits of registration. Note that one important benefit is:
When registration is made prior to infringement or within three months after publication of a work, a copyright owner is eligible for statutory damages, attorneys’ fees, and costs.
I don’t know what most publishers do. I imagine the large ones with legal departments register the audiobook copyright. You can register works for a nominal fee through the online portal.
If a book is in PD but I’m using a recently published version to read from (not including introductions, forwards etc. but only the actual text of the book) could I run into issues if they have done editing that I wasn’t aware of? If I use a complete unabridged version would I be safe? Also, do the rules differ by country and if so, do I need to check each country’s laws before making the audiobooks available in those markets? Thanks!
Hi, RM! Thanks for the question; I apologize for the delay in my reply.
If the copyright on a text has expired, it falls into the public domain. Anyone can do anything they want with that text, including a publishing and copyrighting a new edition.
With a new edition, only the NEW material can be copyrighted. The new copyright doesn’t extend to the original text, which still remains in the PD.
Since you don’t know what has been added to or changed in your new edition, you definitely could infringe copyright by narrating from that book. I would find the original text and use it for my recording.
Copyright laws do vary by country. A large percentage of the works published in the US between 1930 and 1963 are in the public domain and require research to determine its copyright status.
This Wikipedia page shows the copyright durations around the world.
You’ll see that many countries adhere to the Berne Convention international treaty which sets the copyright period as author’s date of death plus 50 years. At the moment in those countries, works from authors who passed in or before 1973 would be public domain.
The US and European Union have stronger laws that extend copyright to 70 years past the author’s death, making 1953 the cut-off date. Remember, though, the US laws have changed over time, so a book published in the US in 1963 could still be public domain even if the author is still alive.
I have selected “worldwide” distribution on my public domain books. It’s an uncommon occurrence that a book is PD in the US and still copyrighted elsewhere.
I hope these thoughts are helpful.
This comment was left on my article Links to Help Narrators Research Rights Holders to Books, but I moved it here as it pertains to PD books.
Hello Helpful Lady!
I want to record a book that was published in 1884 in the U.S. It is available on Project Gutenberg which says it is not under copyright. The Stanford resource you mentions lists it as being under copyright by Little, Brown with a publication date of May 1939 and a renewal date of March 1967. I figure that covers a publication they did with added material. I figure I’m safe simply to record the basic text. Do you agree?
I would like to publish through ACX. Do you have any articles/videos on your site about how do publish a public domain book through ACX? I’d especially like to know how you obtain cover art for such a book.
Thank you so much!
Hello, and thanks for the questions!
You are absolutely right! Once a work loses copyright protection and falls into the public domain, only the NEW material can be copyrighted in subsequent editions. The new copyright doesn’t extend to the original text, which still remains in the PD.
I always recommend reading from the original text for this reason. Otherwise, you could infringe copyright by recording any new material. The renewal record you found at Stanford may indicate what changed, like an introduction, or it may simply state NM meaning “new material”.
Publishing through ACX means that you have to be able to claim an edition on Amazon to start the process. You’ll find some links in the Amazon Edition section above.
The article also includes some links about cover art. I linked to my recommended cover designer on the NarratorsRoadmap Welcome Center page.
As I outlined in the Starting Point section above, more of my resources about PD books are available to members of NarratorsRoadmap.com.
I’m excited to announce that on Wednesday 15 May — next week! — I’m hosting a Zoom for NarratorsRoadmap.com site members about self-publishing! All members are invited though attendance is limited to the first 100 people. Details are in the member Event Calendar, and I’ll send a reminder email before the event starts. I’ll post the recording on the site afterward so that all members will have access to it.
I have found a book published in 1889 that I would like to narrate. I have looked through all the copyright search engines you recommended. The book shows up in none. I keep getting no results. Does that mean I’m safe to assume there’s no renewal or does it mean I did the searches wrong. The book is by a fairly well known authoress.
Hi, Annette! Thanks for the note.
Your 1889 book is public domain, as is everything published in or before 1928 in the United States. On 1/1/25, everything published in the US in 1929 moves into the public domain.
We only need to research the copyright renewals for books published between 1929 and 1963, inclusive.
Have fun recording it!
Karen
What a relief/comfort to get this reply! I didn’t realize that renewals were only an issue between those dates. You are a blessing to us all, Karen. Thanks so much.
Annette Amelia
Reposting and paraphrasing a question I received in email —
I want to record a public domain anthology of short stories that all relate to the same fictional character.
The book uses the same title as one of the stories. I’m concerned listeners may think that only that particular story is in the book.
I’m curious if there any acceptable and legal ways around this. Could I change the title of either the book or story? I also wondered if I could add a subtitle.
What do you suggest I do?
Thanks for this question!
As a narrator, we are told we must read word-for-word the text that is in front of us.
As a producer/publisher of a public domain work, the exact opposite is true. Material in the public domain has no copyright and belongs to all of us. As I wrote in reason 9 of this article, you have complete creative control and freedom and are only limited by your imagination!
In other words, since the book is in the public domain, you legally can make any textual changes to it that you want!
You could change anything including the character’s name, as well as add, transpose, or remove words, sentences, and whole sections from the book.
For instance, I frequently modernize some language in old texts. I make a point to restore women’s first names to them in non-fiction texts.
This freedom to change the text means you can choose one or more of these options:
— change the book title, either with a new name or by keeping the name of the story and add something like “And Other Stories” to it
— keep the original book title and add a subtitle like “A Collection of X Stories”
— change the story title to be different than the book title
— change the story order so that the one sharing the title with the book comes at the end of the audiobook. Re-sequencing the stories this way would only work if each doesn’t build on info disclosed in those before it.
If it were my audiobook, I would probably change the title to be “Short Story A and Other CharacterName Stories” or something similar.
Be aware that your distributor choice may influence your decision. If you’re distributing through ACX or Findaway — which goes through ACX to distribute to Audible — you will need to claim an Amazon edition to start the process. You can’t change the title before the audiobook is published because that info is pulled directly from Amazon. You would need to contact ACX after the audiobook is available on Audible if you want to change the title.
Regardless of the distributor(s) you select, I would do these 2 things to provide additional clarity for the listener:
— list all of the individual stories in your audiobook’s description
— include the story name as part of the file name in the audiobook
I hope this info helps. Best wishes for your success!
Hi Karen! I love your enthusiasm for public domain projects.
I have found an author that I absolutely adore. Her enthusiasm for her projects sings through her words. Her books were all published in the late 1800s and very early 1900s. She wrote social “herstory” about life in the mid 1600s to early 1800s. One of her books was identified as historically significant and republished in 2017. None of her books have been turned into audiobooks.
I assume (I know the danger) that the poetry she included from other authors that are scattered throughout her texts will also be public domain based on her publication dates.
She wrote at a time when casual racism was seemingly acceptable. As Maya Angelou said, “when you know better, do better”. I plan to use “Indigenous People” in place of her terminology. I am uncertain how to handle the casual description of the benefits of using slave labour including child slave labour. It is a bit mind boggling to me. The easiest solution would be removing those sections (there are a few references in a 400 page book) but that seems disingenuous to me. Would an Editor’s Note be beneficial? Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks for everything you do!
Lee
Hi, Lee! Thanks for the note, and congratulations on finding a PD book that excites you and isn’t already in audio!
One great and wonderful thing about a PD book is that you can make any change to it that you want!
I try to determine the author’s intent behind the writing. I have updated many casually racist terms to more neutral language, and I have removed words, sentences, paragraphs, and pages from texts. You also have the choice of rewriting problematic sections.
I recently did a webinar for NarratorsRoadmap.com members titled Public Domain Audiobooks and Self-Publishing. I discussed this issue and offer some examples of disclaimers you can add to the book description.
In addition, you may want to check out these articles and their comments for more perspectives:
— Rebecca H. Lee’s “MODIFYING TEXT IN OLD BOOKS IS A FORM OF BOOK BANNING”
— PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel Criticizes Changes to Roald Dahl Novels
I hope this info helps. Best wishes for your success!
Karen